5 ms·

The greatest myth in sustainable energy policy is "every little helps". We get caught up on visible but irrelevant things, while ignoring massive systemic probl

The greatest myth in sustainable energy policy is "every little helps". We get caught up on visible but irrelevant things, while ignoring massive systemic problems. Apple publish high-quality, audited environmental impact reports for all their products. A 64gb iPhone 8 produces the equivalent of 57kg of CO2 across the entire product lifespan, from manufacturing to recycling. A return flight from LAX to JFK produces ~580kg of CO2; the climate impact is equivalent to ~1100kg of CO2, because emissions at altitude have a greater warming effect. Driving 10,000 miles in a typical sedan or crossover SUV emits about 3000kg of CO2; in a large pickup like a Ford F150, that figure is closer to 4500kg. The food consumption of the average US household results in equivalent CO2 emissions of 8100kg. Our carbon emissions are dominated by heating and cooling, transport and food. Keeping your phone for another couple of years is a rounding error in the scheme of things - it's equivalent to a two-hour car journey or a good restaurant meal. If we are to stand any chance of limiting the impact of climate change, we need to make big, difficult choices about our lifestyle. We need to massively reduce the amount we drive and fly. We need to redesign homes to require less active heating and cooling. We need far more sustainable electricity generation. We need to radically alter our diets and our approach to agriculture, with far less meat and dairy consumption. This will be difficult, expensive and politically unpopular, but it's the only way we'll make a meaningful impact. https://images.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/iphone/iPhone_8_PER_sept2017.pdf https://images.apple.com/environment/pdf/products/iphone/iPh... https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 https://calculator.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx?tab=3 http://css.umich.edu/factsheets/carbon-footprint-factsheet http://css.umich.edu/factsheets/carbon-footprint-factsheet https://www.withouthotair.com/ https://www.withouthotair.com/

paulintrognon 9y ago
I understand what you say, and I agree for the most part, but it really seems impossible that a two-hour car journey emits more than manufacturing a smartphone... I mean, building a smartphone involves digging for raw materials, extract them, transport them, assemble them, etc. And i'm not counting the emission during the design process. I know that a two-hour car journey is really not optimized, and that manufacturing phones on a large scale is very optimized, but it seems impossible to me that manufacturing a phone in China from components from all over the world emits less that a good big steak in a restaurant... I that's true, that's incredible.
- jdietrich 9y ago
  Imagine if you bought gasoline at the grocery store in two-liter bottles. You'd need to buy 31 bottles to fill the tank on a Ford Fusion. Think about what 31 bottles of soda would look like in a shopping cart. Think about the sheer effort of filling your cart with 31 bottles, pushing it to the parking lot and pouring the contents into your gas tank. Someone had to build a giant platform in the ocean, drill a hole deep into the ground, pump the oil out of the ground and move it ashore, boil it in a giant distiller to extract the gasoline, pump it into a tanker and drive it to your gas station. All of that stuff is invisible, but you notice the gram of polythene wrapping on a cucumber. A phone is an incredibly sophisticated device, but it's only a few ounces of stuff. It cost you $700, so it feels like it should involve a huge amount of natural resources to make. It required a lot of human skill and ingenuity, but we didn't need to burn a lot of stuff to make it. When you fill up your tank with $50 of unleaded, you don't think about the huge volume of pure hydrocarbons you're pouring into your car or the immensely energy-intensive processes needed to extract, refine and transport that fuel. When you get on a plane, you don't think about the fact that almost the entire volume of the wings are filled with fuel that'll be burned in a single journey. When your heating thermostat clicks on, you don't think about the volume of gas rushing through a network of pipes to feed your boiler.
craftyguy 9y ago
Like most problems, the 'solution' to reducing CO2 emmissions is made up of a bunch of smaller changes, and will not be one large 'fix'. I see no harm in chipping away at even the smallest of gains, provided we continue/push changes at all levels. Even 57kg * millions of devices over 18 months (average lifetime of a phone) is still a substantial amount of CO2 being released, even if it is dwarfed by other sources.
- AstralStorm 9y ago
  Substantial? Not really compared to truck transport or even cars. Or especially not when compared to electricity generation. Two cans of soda take more energy to make. (Because metals are extremely energy intensive to refine and recycle.) The main environmental killers are still means of transport. A car is a ton of metal... Housing also demands plenty of energy in materials.

paulintrognon 9y ago

I understand what you say, and I agree for the most part, but it really seems impossible that a two-hour car journey emits more than manufacturing a smartphone... I mean, building a smartphone involves digging for raw materials, extract them, transport them, assemble them, etc. And i'm not counting the emission during the design process. I know that a two-hour car journey is really not optimized, and that manufacturing phones on a large scale is very optimized, but it seems impossible to me that manufacturing a phone in China from components from all over the world emits less that a good big steak in a restaurant... I that's true, that's incredible.

jdietrich 9y ago
Imagine if you bought gasoline at the grocery store in two-liter bottles. You'd need to buy 31 bottles to fill the tank on a Ford Fusion. Think about what 31 bottles of soda would look like in a shopping cart. Think about the sheer effort of filling your cart with 31 bottles, pushing it to the parking lot and pouring the contents into your gas tank. Someone had to build a giant platform in the ocean, drill a hole deep into the ground, pump the oil out of the ground and move it ashore, boil it in a giant distiller to extract the gasoline, pump it into a tanker and drive it to your gas station. All of that stuff is invisible, but you notice the gram of polythene wrapping on a cucumber. A phone is an incredibly sophisticated device, but it's only a few ounces of stuff. It cost you $700, so it feels like it should involve a huge amount of natural resources to make. It required a lot of human skill and ingenuity, but we didn't need to burn a lot of stuff to make it. When you fill up your tank with $50 of unleaded, you don't think about the huge volume of pure hydrocarbons you're pouring into your car or the immensely energy-intensive processes needed to extract, refine and transport that fuel. When you get on a plane, you don't think about the fact that almost the entire volume of the wings are filled with fuel that'll be burned in a single journey. When your heating thermostat clicks on, you don't think about the volume of gas rushing through a network of pipes to feed your boiler.

craftyguy 9y ago

Like most problems, the 'solution' to reducing CO2 emmissions is made up of a bunch of smaller changes, and will not be one large 'fix'. I see no harm in chipping away at even the smallest of gains, provided we continue/push changes at all levels. Even 57kg * millions of devices over 18 months (average lifetime of a phone) is still a substantial amount of CO2 being released, even if it is dwarfed by other sources.

AstralStorm 9y ago
Substantial? Not really compared to truck transport or even cars. Or especially not when compared to electricity generation. Two cans of soda take more energy to make. (Because metals are extremely energy intensive to refine and recycle.) The main environmental killers are still means of transport. A car is a ton of metal... Housing also demands plenty of energy in materials.